EASYJET founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has accused its board of enriching themselves without taking risks as it emerged the airline's chief executive Carolyn McCall netted £6.4 million last year.

The comments threaten to reignite a long-running dispute between Sir Stelios and the airline's directors which appeared to have calmed after the company announced a £175m special dividend last month.

According to easyJet's annual report Ms McCall's pay package was almost double the £3.7m she took home the previous year.

It included a £665,000 salary, £4.5m in long-term bonuses, a £1.1m annual bonus and £47,000 pension contribution.

EasyJet's finance director Chris Kennedy received £3.7m.

Sir Stelios, who is the airline's largest shareholder, said: "Although the share price has gone up roughly three times since this management took over, their take home pay has multiplied in the order of 20-30 times.

"A nice job if you can get the other directors to vote for it. Yet another case of City insiders enriching themselves without taking any risk.

"We shall see what other shareholders have to say at the AGM (annual general meeting)."

The report came as the Luton-based carrier, which flies to cities around the UK and Europe from Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, said its passenger numbers in November increased to 4.25 million, 3.4% ahead of last year.

But its planes are less full with the load factor down 0.6%.

So far this year the airline has flown 61.2m passengers.